


Virtuous Queen

by ShevatheGun



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, Naprem feels guilty af, Occupation of Bajor, background Dukat/Naprem, past Dukat/Meru/Naprem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 13:45:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17746991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShevatheGun/pseuds/ShevatheGun
Summary: Naprem has spent the better part of the last ten years wishing she could meet Meru's daughter. It's only now, when the opportunity presents itself, that she realizes the impossibility of that dream.





	Virtuous Queen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cohobbitation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cohobbitation/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Pour One Out for the Wicked](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17595299) by [cohobbitation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cohobbitation/pseuds/cohobbitation). 



> ayyyy I wrote a fic for Al because Pour One Out For the Wicked destroyed my soul and I wanted to do the same fic premise from Naprem's POV so here ya go bless all yall
> 
> title from act 1: scene 5 of hamlet, which should tell you a thing or two

She looks just like her mother. Oh, you might not notice it at first - she has Taban's eyes, his square-set chin and nervous fingers, the grimacing-grin of a hound who's used to fighting for its supper. But Naprem knew her the moment she laid eyes on her; underneath the lacquer, she's Meru all over. She has her copper sheen hidden in her hair. She has her giddy laugh hidden in the back of her mouth, wedged up against her sharp teeth.

Kira Nerys hasn't seen Naprem yet, and that's on purpose. She can't hear how loud Naprem’s heart is beating, and that's a blessing. 

It's been a week since she arrived, and since the first time she laid eyes on her, Naprem has been rocked by nightmares - a small dinghy in a hungry, stormy sea. Naprem has made herself scarce from the Promenade, from public life since Vaatrick's murder, only partially at Skrain's request. She's woman enough to admit when she's frightened; smart enough to see through the smoke to the source of the fire. Red hair hidden under black dye. Small, deft hands better suited to a phaser than to a mine cart. Naprem didn't consider Vaatrick a friend, per se - she’s conservative with that term now more than ever - but he was a friendly acquaintance at least. She's hard pressed for pleasant company these days - most of the Bajorans she's permitted to associate with in good faith are cancerous pustules, Vaatrick's own wife not least among them, and as she's been for most of her life, Naprem finds herself desperately lonely. But her loneliness now takes second place to her fear; that is the way of things, as the Prefect's… whatever she is to him. She and Vaatrick had exchanged recipes from time to time, supplied one another with sugar and tea - is that enough, she wonders? Will that be the thing that costs her her life? Will that be the crime Kira Nerys hangs her for?

More than anything, she’s ashamed. She's embarrassed. It’s been almost a decade now that Naprem has spent longing for Meru to be returned to her, longing to have her back in some form. Now, her daughter is on the station, very nearly within Skrain's grasp, at the very least in near and present danger. And Naprem can do nothing but hide from her.

But it's more than that, she reasons - more than hiding from a vengeful harbinger. She pauses along the railing of the mezzanine, pretending to work. Nerys is beneath her on the Promenade, back to her. She's so small, Naprem thinks - not that Bajorans are a particularly large people, but she's slight as a knife. There's a boniness to her wrists, a gauntness to her cheeks. The tendons of her neck stand out from the skin. Hunger is written into her like ink, in the same indelible way softness was written into her mother. A child of the Occupation through and through, born into hell, content to die in the flames of it. 

Naprem has to hide from her, she knows that. What would they even say to one another in the best of times? Besides, years of scorn have made her shy. Attempted assassinations and kidnapping have crippled her brave heart, forced her into the safety of the shadows and Skrain Dukat's arms. She's too frightened to speak to her, to show herself. Kira Nerys may look like her mother, but Naprem has no illusions that she's inherited Meru's sense of mercy.

After all, Kira Nerys is still alive. Meru's mercy gutted her from the inside like a fish, and spilled her blood all over Naprem's lap, where it remains to this day. Can't she smell it, Naprem wonders? Can't you smell the rotting stench of your mother's blood all over me, sweet one? Can't you smell her, buried inside me? Her grave marker is my face. Her grave soil, my heartbeat. 

She dreams of Nerys' hands around her throat. She wakes with her head on Skrain's chest, mouth gasping. She's not sure which is worse.

Perhaps that's what ushers her into Odo's company, the same day Vaatrick is found dead in his shop. She's too nervous. She has to do something, and it can't be submitting herself to Kira Nerys’ mercies. She has a daughter of her own to think about, after all. And she's frightened. For herself, for Nerys. For all the things she has and hasn't done.

She catches him on his morning constitutional, and falls into step beside him.

“Odo,” she says, as gently as she can. “I need you to… keep an eye on someone for me.”

Odo regards her cryptically, as always, following her line of sight. Nerys is eating in the mess right across the hall. This is the closest Naprem will come to her for the rest of her stay; the last time she will be on the Promenade for some time. “You... suspect her of something?”

“No.” Fast and too harsh. She tries again, gentler. "No, Odo. I... just worry. That's all. About her."

"May I ask why?"

"Better that you don't. Do this for me, Odo. Please?"

He nods slowly, but like he doesn't know why he's agreeing to this. "...I suppose I can try."

Naprem nods and smiles at him.

“Thank you,” she says.

And then, like a coward, she disappears.


End file.
